TEMPERATURE QUILT

Have you heard of a Temperature Quilt? It’s a way to track the daily highs and lows of the temperature in your area (or any area) or just another fun way to make a quilt. I designed two different Temperature Quilts: House Row Quilt and a Flying Geese Quilt.

The first requirement is to pick your temperature range and assign a fabric or fabric color to that temperature range. Moda Fabrics has provided us with a great template to use. You can download them here.

HOUSE ROW QUILT

The house roof/door is the high temperature for the day, and the house is the low temperature. Quilt measures 72″ x 80″ and has 360 houses.

The cutting requirements are:

House body – Cut two 2″ by 2-1/2″ rectangles and one 1″ x 1-1/2″
House door – Cut one 1-1/2″ by 2″ rectangle
House roof (flying geese) – Cut one square 5-1/4″ and cut corner to corner twice. This will yield four flying geese. Flying geese sky – Cut one square 2-7/8″ and cut in half corner to corner.

FLYING GEESE QUILT

The flying geese quilt is made from four flying geese sewn together. The temperature fabrics can be anything you choose. Just stay consistent…not that anyone will notice if you aren’t. You have several options depending on how scrappy you want your quilt. Version 1 Quilt measures 84″ x 84″ and 368 blocks. Version 2 Quilt measures 67″ x 84″ and has 320 blocks.

Use one color for the goose and one color for the sky.
Use the same color for the goose and a different color for each sky triangle representing the high and low temperature for the day.
Use the average for the day as your goose and keep the sky the same color.

The geese in the pattern finish at 2″ x 4″. I recommend that you use the Creative Grids Flying Geese Ruler or the It’s Sew Emma Flying Geese Paper. Below are the instructions for the traditional method of sewing flying geese:

Goose – Cut one square 5-1/4″. Cut into quarters.
Sky – Cut one square 2-7/8″ and cut in half corner to corner.
Center Block – 8-1/2″ blocks.
Cornerstones – 4-1/2″ squares.
Corner Triangles – Cut 6-1/2″ squares and cut in half corner to corner one time yielding two triangles from each square. You want to cut your corner units like this so the bias is not on the outside edge of your quilt.
Side Setting Triangles – Cut 12-1/2″ squares and cut in half corner to corner twice yielding four triangles per square. You want to cut your corner units like this so the bias is not on the outside edge of your quilt.
Small Side Cornerstone Setting Triangle – Cut 7″ squares and cut in half corner to corner twice yielding four triangles per square. Cutting this way keeps your bias on the inside edge of your quilt

Setting Triangles

Let’s talk a little about the outside edge of your quilt. It would be easy to just start cutting half-square from squares. BUT, if you do that both long edges of every strip will be on true bias, which means it will be almost impossible to get a nice flat quilt top. You need to ensure that the outside edge of your quilt is cut on the straight of grain.

It’s not hard to do — it just requires a little planning before you begin to cut them. Your triangles won’t stretch as they’re added to the blocks. Your rows won’t stretch as they are joined so your quilt will be “square”. And the length of your quilt top will match from side to side and top to bottom.

There is a math formula that you can use, or you can do it the way I do by using the “No Match Quilt Chart” Book.

I will discuss this further once we get closer to finishing. This should get you started.